Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to thermoplastic materials and packaging therefor. In particular, some implementations of the present invention relate to systems and methods for packaging a thermoplastic material in a container having a quick opening mechanism that allows the container to easily be removed from the thermoplastic material and that allows the container to easily be knocked down or flattened.
Background and Related Art
Thermoplastics typically include one or more polymers that change to a liquid or semi-liquid state when the polymers are heated sufficiently, and that freeze or solidify to a rigid or semi-rigid state when the polymers are cooled sufficiently. While thermoplastics have a wide variety of uses, in some cases, such materials are used as pavement joint sealants, pavement crack sealants, waterproofing membranes, hot-melt adhesives, roofing asphalt, paving grade asphalt cement, and a variety of other products. In many such cases, thermoplastics (e.g., thermoplastic sealants, waterproofing membranes, hot melt adhesives, etc.) are heated, mixed, and then applied to a surface (e.g., pavement, a roof, etc.), where they are allowed to cool and harden.
When thermoplastics are used as sealants, membranes, adhesives, and/or in a similar manner, they are often used to minimize water infiltration, prevent the accumulation of debris, prolong the life of, and otherwise protect the material or structure to which they are applied. In this regard, some examples of materials that can be protected by thermoplastics (such as thermoplastic sealants) include, but are not limited to, asphalt pavement and Portland cement pavement. Moreover, some non-limiting examples of structures that can be protected by thermoplastics include roads, roofs, bridge decks, retention ponds, sidewalks, parking lots, tarmacs, and a wide variety of other structures.
As some thermoplastic materials can be relatively sticky, even in their solid or semi-solid form, such thermoplastics are often packaged until use. Although, such thermoplastics can be packaged in a variety of ways, some methods for packaging thermoplastic materials have shortcomings. Indeed, in some techniques for packaging thermoplastics, the packaging can be relatively expensive, can be relatively hard to compact, can undesirably tear into small pieces that make a mess, can require the use of knives or other sharp and potentially dangerous instruments to open such packaging, and can otherwise be difficult to use.
Thus, while techniques currently exist that are used to package thermoplastic materials, challenges still exist, including those discussed above. Accordingly, it would be an improvement in the art to augment or even replace current techniques with other techniques.